Words and Thoughts of Joshua Scott Witsaman

Tag Archives: Javier Saltares

. . . . and I believe it’s pretty self evident why. This week’s panel comes to us from the Ghost Rider collection entitled Resurrected. Written by Howard Mackie with art by Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira. I’ve used this trade for several Friday Funny Pages already and I actually have a few more planned. There’s just a lot of great stuff within those pages, Ghost Rider has always been a favorite of mine visually. One of my favorite panels of all time, and I think one of my best finds for FFP, was the panel with the chalk outline baby. Seen here!

This image of an old dude smashing a beer bottle over the head of some pool playing biker type while proclaiming the insufferable affront done to the personage of one Dr. Calvin Zabo, seems amusing to me as well. First off the name, Dr. Calvin Zabo. That’s the name of the bottle wielding gent in the panel. It’s not really the type of intimidating nomenclature that sends the dregs of the night scurrying. Secondly, the ol’ beer bottle to the head routine. I love when someone gets clocked with some type of glass object whether it be a vase, bottle, jug, what have you. That’s just funny to me. Ever since I was young and learned that the glass bottles in movies were made from sugar, I just imagine it would be really fun to be involved in a scene where a lot of fake glass gets smashed across people’s faces. Maybe that’s just me though? Third, what’s this old bastard doing hanging out at some biker bar anyway? Clearly he’s looking for trouble.

As many of you know I’m a huge Marvelite, make mine Marvel every time. I’m a card carrying member of the Mighty Marvel Marching Band, and I pride myself on my Marvel knowledge. However in the spirit of full disclosure I had no idea who this old man was when I was rereading this issue. That’s partially why it stuck out to me, this old guy just hilariously goes ape shit on these thugs and I wasn’t sure why. To be fair though, throughout most of the issue the good doctor doesn’t change into his alter ego, the murderous and more recognizable Mr. Hyde! Now Mr. Hyde I know. He’s been a staple of the Marvel villains C-List for decades. To be honest however Mr. Hyde is not one of my favorites. He’s not Marvel’s most original creation, and he’s not even really that interesting. Transforming, drugged up on mutant growth hormones, he goes from an old balls douche with a pony tail to a super strong snarling Hulk wannabe. Though now that I know who Dr. Calvin Zabo is, and I’ve seen him out at the clubs, I think I actually like him better than his super villain alter ego.

This week features the spirit of vengeance himself, Ghost Rider. This panel is taken from the Howard Mackie/Javier Saltares/Mark Texeira run of Ghost Rider, collected in a trade titled Resurrected. I’ve shown a couple other panels from this trade in past Friday Funny Pages, you might remember the one a few weeks back featuring infanticide? Check the archives, you can’t miss it.

This panel is just great, and the thing that makes it great is the exclusion of an exclamation mark and the inclusion of a question mark. So simple and understated yet with a multitude of humorous possibilites. What exactly is Ghost Rider questioning? Is he putting forth the existential ponderance of “what is vengeance?” or perhaps he’s asking “would you care for some vengeance?” maybe he’s questioning his role as a super hero “I deal in vengeance?” or it could be he just didn’t hear what someone said. Whatever it is Ghost Rider is questioning this is just one of those panels that I would love to have on a shirt, or find some excuse to post in a forum as my only response to leave other readers dumbfounded. If you are reading this I encourage you to find some excuse to use this image and deal out some “vengeance?” of your own!